Extreme Economics: Teaching Children and Teenagers about Money by Keen J. Babbage

Author:Keen J. Babbage [Babbage, Keen J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781607092896
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Published: 2009-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

H O W T O F U L L Y A P P L Y S T U D E N T L I F E E X P E R I E N C E

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“Mom, I just found out about this really cool notebook. Some club at school just started selling them.”

“Sounds interesting. Is that $15 in your budget, Rachael?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then how exactly can you buy the notebook?”

“Oh, I guess I could babysit this Friday night. The Wrights asked me to babysit. I think it is from 6:00 to 9:00 that night. They have some ban-quet to go to. They pay $7 an hour.”

“Problem solved.”

“Yeah. I’ll have to miss that basketball game Friday night I want to see. Wait. The Wright’s twins love basketball . Maybe I could take them to the game. I could introduce them to my friends on the high school team.”

“Ask Mr. and Mrs. Wright about that. They may have questions or concerns. If you miss the game, you still make $21 and that pays for the notebook with money left over to save. Aren’t your high school games broadcast on the school website and then available anytime? You could watch that when you get home.”

“OK. I’ll talk to the Wrights. I’ll find a way to do all of this.”

Notice, if Mom had handed her daughter the $15, the only learning is that money just has to be asked for. That is misleading. That denies Rachael the experience of earning money and of learning about economic trade-offs. If Mom says, “No, forget any new notebook,” then Rachael has no earning experience or learning experience. The mother managed this in the way her daughter knew she would by turning this into a problem that Rachael would have to solve. Rachael can solve this problem by controlling what she can control. Mother and daughter will benefit in their relationship and in the achievements brought about through the work Rachael will do under Mom’s guidance.

When parents or guardians teach a child about how to safely cross a street the words “Look both ways” are included in the instruction. The adult holds the hand of the child to be sure that the proper procedure for safely crossing the street is followed.

When I advised my nephews and my niece about getting their driver’s license, my guidance included, “Always assume that every other driver at any moment with no warning to you could do something dangerous.”

We discussed details—for example, that to some drivers a stop sign 1 1 6

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means slightly slow down and to some drivers a red light is never fully red so stopping is never fully needed.

In money management instruction, adults can tell children to look both ways—look for ways to save money and look for ways to earn money. Then the adult takes the child by the hand and together they walk through day-to-day activities of disciplined, smart, controlled money management, beginning with saving money.

As the child becomes a

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